Edward Emerson Barnard (December 16, 1857 - February 6, 1923)

Edward Emerson Barnard was one of the great observational astronomers.
He was born in 1857 in Nashville, Tennessee, the son of Reuben and
Elizabeth Jane (Haywood) Barnard. His father died before his birth, and
he grew up under poverty conditions, with his mother having to support
herself and her two sons. In young years he experienced the Civil War,
and survived a cholera attack. At age of nine, he began to work as a
photographer's assistant.

In 1876, he puchased an equatorially mounted 5-inch refractor from John
Byrne of New York for $ 400, or about 2/3 of his annual income that year.
In January, 1881, still employed at the photo studio, he married Rhoda
Calvert, an England-born lady whom he knew from his work in the studio.
On May 12, 1881, Barnard discovered his first comet, which however he did
not announce. He found his second comet on September 17 of the same year,
and another one on September 13, 1882.

In 1892, Barnard discovered Jupiter's fifth moon, Amalthea.

In 1916, he discovered the fast proper motion of more than 10 arc seconds
per year, of the 9.5-magnitude star cataloged as Munich 15040 or LFT 1385
in Ophiuchus. This is the fastest proper motion found so far (even now, at
the time of this writing in 2001) for any star beyond the Solar System.
Since, this star is called
Barnard's Star.

Barnard has been honored by the naming of asteroid (819) Barnardiana,
discovered on March 3, 1916 by Max Wolf in Heidelberg, and provisionally
designated 1916 ZA; later it had been assigned A904 SC, 1930 QX, and 1955 EB
in addition on the occasion of unrecognized observations.
Also, he has been honored by the naming of a Moon Crater (29.5S, 85.6E, 105.0 km
diameter) in 1964, a Mars Crater (61.4S, 298.4W, 125.0 km) in 1973, and a region
on Jupiter's moon Ganymede, Barnard Regio (0.8N, 1.0W, 2547 km).